Conventional oral care products (e.g., mouthwashes, toothpastes, gels, etc.) including whitening agents are often utilized to whiten teeth. For example, conventional mouthwashes including hydrogen peroxide are often utilized to oxidize chromophores bound to surfaces and/or dentin of teeth to thereby whiten the teeth. While mouthwashes including hydrogen peroxide have proven to be effective for whitening teeth, different chromophores on the surfaces are often oxidized at varying rates and/or via varying mechanisms. Accordingly, mouthwashes including a single whitening agent (e.g., hydrogen peroxide) may require relatively longer periods of treatment to appreciably whiten the teeth.
In view of the foregoing, oral care products incorporating hydrogen peroxide often include an additional whitening agent to facilitate the oxidation of the different chromophores to thereby shorten the periods of treatment. While the oral care products incorporating a variety of whitening agents have demonstrated increased efficacy in whitening teeth, there is a desire to utilize whitening agents having relatively increased reactivity to thereby further reduce the periods of treatment. However, the whitening agents having relatively increased reactivity are often unstable and/or subject to degradation. For example, the whitening agents having relatively increased reactivity often react with other components of the dentifrice (e.g., water) and/or degrade, thereby reducing the effectiveness thereof.
What is needed, then, are improved whitening compositions and methods for whitening teeth.